Karl Haffner Walla Walla University Church senior pastor, 1997–2007 By Karl Haffner Perfectly Off-key The Dave Matthews Band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991 when vocalist/guitarist Dave Matthews decided to put some songs he had written on tape. The band immediately attracted a strong word-of-mouth following by touring the country cons... Read more What I Learned at Nordstrom University The telephone startled me awake. “Huh, um, hello?” I croaked. Read more Go Out Like a Light Recently, I saw a clip from the movie, "About Schmidt." Although I haven’t seen the movie and can’t endorse it, I understand that Jack Nicholson stars as Warren Schmidt, a man leading a life of quiet desperation. He retired as vice president of an... Read more My Flossophy on Habits The electric chair. Sweat moistened my body as I trudged toward it. Read more The Christmas Spirit Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff tells a delightful story about choosing joy over sorrow—in spite of dreadful circumstances. His family arrived as immigrants in New York City. Too poor to buy groceries, they often skipped meals because the cupboard... Read more Blackberry Pie, a la Mayonnaise Have you ever thought about the extraordinary power of attitude? Emerson once said, "A man is what he thinks about all day long." The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius said, "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it." William James put it this way... Read more A Marriage Made in Heaven Paul Harvey shared the true story of a woman who called the Butterball Turkey Company hot line that was set up to answer consumer questions about preparing turkeys. This woman inquired about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 yea... Read more What Kevin Costner Taught Me about Our Church Leaders The theme of the Gleaner this month reminds me of Kevin Costner and a restroom. Read more Putting Evangelism on Cruise Control My brothers didn’t think I could survive an hour of aerobics. I knew they couldn’t. So a friendly wager was on. We were on a cruise ship with some midnight buffets in the belly to burn off, so I ventured onto the gym floor and tried to mimic the m... Read more Wise and Otherwise In a parking lot I recently witnessed a car and a pickup roll toward the same parking space. Both were obviously determined to seize it. A grizzly mountain man rolled down his window in his one-ton pickup. Then an Ivanna Trump look-alike rolled do... Read more Pagination Previous page ‹‹ Page 3 Next page ››
Perfectly Off-key The Dave Matthews Band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991 when vocalist/guitarist Dave Matthews decided to put some songs he had written on tape. The band immediately attracted a strong word-of-mouth following by touring the country cons... Read more
What I Learned at Nordstrom University The telephone startled me awake. “Huh, um, hello?” I croaked. Read more
Go Out Like a Light Recently, I saw a clip from the movie, "About Schmidt." Although I haven’t seen the movie and can’t endorse it, I understand that Jack Nicholson stars as Warren Schmidt, a man leading a life of quiet desperation. He retired as vice president of an... Read more
The Christmas Spirit Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff tells a delightful story about choosing joy over sorrow—in spite of dreadful circumstances. His family arrived as immigrants in New York City. Too poor to buy groceries, they often skipped meals because the cupboard... Read more
Blackberry Pie, a la Mayonnaise Have you ever thought about the extraordinary power of attitude? Emerson once said, "A man is what he thinks about all day long." The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius said, "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it." William James put it this way... Read more
A Marriage Made in Heaven Paul Harvey shared the true story of a woman who called the Butterball Turkey Company hot line that was set up to answer consumer questions about preparing turkeys. This woman inquired about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 yea... Read more
What Kevin Costner Taught Me about Our Church Leaders The theme of the Gleaner this month reminds me of Kevin Costner and a restroom. Read more
Putting Evangelism on Cruise Control My brothers didn’t think I could survive an hour of aerobics. I knew they couldn’t. So a friendly wager was on. We were on a cruise ship with some midnight buffets in the belly to burn off, so I ventured onto the gym floor and tried to mimic the m... Read more
Wise and Otherwise In a parking lot I recently witnessed a car and a pickup roll toward the same parking space. Both were obviously determined to seize it. A grizzly mountain man rolled down his window in his one-ton pickup. Then an Ivanna Trump look-alike rolled do... Read more
